


The Line at the End

by mobius_stripper



Series: Tales from the Tower [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-02-21 10:25:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 9,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2464856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mobius_stripper/pseuds/mobius_stripper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone wants to help James Buchanan Barnes readjust to real life.  They have to take turns.</p><p>Finale: the ungodly beeping from all of Jane's equipment heralds a very godly entrance.<br/>It might be more trouble than it's worth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Game of Cap and Mouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> expanded the little baby epilogue from Outlandish and Fantastic.

The mission is incomplete.  The target is alive. 

The Winter Soldier has learned that killing Captain America is very difficult.  Even  ~~especially?~~ for him.    
The Winter Soldier does not want to kill Captain America.  Not because it is difficult.  Difficulty can be overcome.  He vaguely remembers previous missions have been difficult and he completed them anyway.  

The memories from the Helicarrier burn in his mind, clearer and brighter than the mission.  He goes over them again, holding each detail as it occurs and hoarding it in his mind.  The more he remembers the less the mission matters.  

The target is alive.  He made sure of that.    
He still doesn't know why he wasted time dredging that river for him.   _...pneumonia's not a good look on you, Stevie.  
_

The errant thought brings surprise but nothing else.  His fists clench in frustration.  The gears whirs softly, an echo of the automatic doors at the library entrance.

The memory of this morning surfaces.  

The girl sitting at the desk saw his face when he came in.  She's still breathing and completely unaware who the man with the cap was.  She's not the only one who saw him sitting in the common area, in a chair that was both soft and stiff.  He had to shift it a few inches to the left to have the best sightlines, but anyone who might have noticed him promptly forgot him once he opened his book.  From behind its pages, he watched.  He watched the children in the open room with toys and colorful cushions.  He watched the parents browsing the bookshelves closest to the children.  He watched the people on the computers, looking up book numbers and writing them down, or furtively browsing the internet.  After an hour of pretending to read, he went to a computer.  

He had the entire internet, with its endless information before him, and no fucking idea what to do.  

Instead, he's been in the stacks for almost five hours, searching his brain for something he can believe. 

 _Your name is James Buchanan_ _Barnes_.

The target's name ~~was~~ is Rogers, Steven G aka Captain America.  He remembers the pictures, the list of skills, and known associates from the file.  None of these things sparks his brain like the target's last words.

_-till the end of the line._

He can feel the importance of those words but nothing comes when he tries to understand  _why_.    
He wants to  _shoot something_ , to take his anger out with bullets or with fists, to scream without the fucking ball in his mouth.  

This is new.  

He's good at dealing death.  He's never enjoyed it it.  It's just necessary.  To give the world freedom.  
Now he _wants_ to feel flesh give and bone grind under his knuckles, over and over until the pounding his head is gone.  He searches his memory for a face, for a victim of his imagined violence.  The target pops up briefly but is replaced by a blurry man with round spectacles.  The man blurs even more and becomes a different one in a white labcoat and they all blur together, again and again until the rage drains away and nothing is left but the faded memory of the mission.  

* * *

The world is still reeling from what happened in D.C. and what  _almost_ happened.  

The SHIELD campus, what's left of it, is covered in angry graffiti as well as memorials.  The Winter Soldier feels nothing.  He only came here to dispose of his tail, in a place where no one will hear.  The rubble shifts under his feet and he listens, slowing his breath until he can hear the soft scratch of glass shards under someone's shoe.  He draws his knife.  
The steps get closer.  
He darts forward and slams his left arm into the kevlar-covered solar plexus, driving all the air out of their lungs in one short grunt.  Their neck twists easily and he lowers the body down, carefully, waiting for the others.  In the muted light, he finds the earpiece and listens in.  There is nothing, not even static.  

He has a few minutes.  He uses them to strip what he needs from the tac vest. A quick search of pockets turns up some cash, cigarettes and a lighter.  He takes all of it and considers his options.  He could collapse what's left of this building on top of his pursuers.  He could leave now and increase his head start.    
Gunfire.  He takes one step toward the sound before choosing to go the other way.  

-

He's clear of the building when he hears it.  

"Bucky!"  
He pauses long enough to get tackled to the ground.    
"My name is Steve Rogers.  You _know_  me," the target says, the words spilling into his brain.  "When you're ready to remember that, find me.  Or go to Stark Tower in New York.  Tony and Bruce- Iron Man and the Hulk live there and I'm sure they can help you."  
"What if I kill them instead?" the Winter Soldier snarls.  
Steve Rogers has the balls to laugh.  It gives him enough room for him to twist out and spring to his feet.    
Steve Rogers is still laughing.  "I honestly don't think you can.  And I wouldn'ta invited you into my home if I thought you were gonna kill the landlord."   
The Winter Soldier aims the stolen gun, not at him, but at the entrance of the alley.    
Steve Rogers takes a breath, and even in the dark, the Winter Soldier sees his eyes go soft.  "Buck-"  
The Winter Soldier whips the gun at his face and, while his arms are up, kicks him in the chest.  He runs out of the alley, pushing past the other man.  

He keeps running, long after he is sure no one is following him.

 


	2. A Game of Cap and Mouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't feel like writing out the _Bourne Identity_ thriller that would be collecting the Winter Soldier and bringing him back in a butterfly net.  
>  Once he's in the Tower things get more fun anyway.

Pepper is understandably reluctant about letting the Winter Soldier stay in her home, especially since she has _read_ his file.  Steve is polite and earnest in his request, and the fact that there are at least three people who could stop him roaming around, is a fairly compelling argument against making them go somewhere else, where it would just be Steve.  Still.  

"-and I thought if Barton ever came back, it'd be good for them to... talk about it," Steve finishes in a rush.  
“I’d like to hear him make his own case.”  Pepper nudges Tony to make him stop staring at the metal arm.  “Shall we start with an introduction?  I’m Pepper Potts.”  
“I’m…”  Steve tenses in the background.  “My name is James Buchanan Barnes,” he says slowly, like reciting something he learned a long time ago.  
“What would you like us to call you?”  Pepper prods gently.  
The silence stretches out, and Captain America deflates like a very handsome souffle.    
“Can I call you Stumpy?” asks Tony.  “It’s not PC, but I don’t think you’d get it if I called you T-800.”  
Everyone but the Winter Soldier turns gimlet stares on him.  
“What?  I asked first.”   
Pepper softens a little because some of the tension in James Buchanan Barnes has been replaced by confusion.  “I like James,” she says.  
Tony makes a face.  “We have a James.  Jim.  Rhodey.”  He drums his fingers on his thigh.  “We could do Jamie, Jem, Jack, Jimmy, Jay, JB ooh, probably not that one, that could lead to any number of freudian slips.”

“I think…” James Buchanan Barnes is still uncomfortable speaking, and it frustrates him.  Everyone in the room freezes, waiting with bated breath for him to have his own opinion, which also frustrates him.  “I think I’d like to be Bucky again.”  
“Bucky the plucky sidekick.  I dig it.  I’m Tony.  That’s Bruce.  He’s my sidekick.”  
“I’m really not.”  Bruce scrubs a hand through his hair.  “Bruce Banner.  You should read my file first.”  
“I did.”  
Bruce’s face twists a little when he remembers that his file is now open access on the internet.  “Right.  Well, Tony’s insurance was already shot to hell, so it’s not like you or I will make it worse.”  
“We’ll see.”  Pepper shifts to business posture.  “I understand eliminating Captain America was your last mission.  How likely is that you will, consciously or not, try to finish it while you’re here?  My concern is less for him and more for the hundreds of civilians in this building during daylight hours.”  She holds up a hand to forestall Steve before he can object.  “You were very literally programmed to do this.  I treat the A.I. as more man than machine because his programming allows him to adapt and learn and act on his own.  What about yours?”

Nobody moves for an age.  
“There’s no mission any more.”  Bucky still talks like he’s unsure how.  “There’s just… empty space that sometimes looks like him.”  He points to Steve.  
”I was kinda hoping that Tony and Bruce could figure out if there was some way to fix what they did to him,” Steve confesses.  
“What if we don’t?”  Tony is sincerely sympathetic but he can’t coddle Steve with optimism.  “I fix stuff and I build stuff but Bucky’s not ‘stuff’.  He’s not a hard drive, even if they were treating him like one.  What are you going to do if we get an MRI of his brain and find that chunks of it are gone forever?”  
“I’ll be really fucking upset.  But I made him a promise, even if he can’t remember it.  I’m with him ‘til the end of the line.”  
“Okay.”  Pepper puts one hand on Tony and stretches the other out.  “Welcome to Stark, Mr. Barnes.”

 


	3. Brain Surgery is Harder than Rocket Science

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> industry vs academia: i have those debates more often than I would have thought

Tony and Bruce need a week to build an MRI machine.  Or at least, the equivalent of one Bruce explains as he reviews Bucky's bloodwork (even though he really isn't that kind of doctor).  Pepper and Steve are sitting a few feet away, watching with interest.  Bucky doesn't seem to mind, and it clearly makes Pepper feel better to know exactly what's going on.  Based on Tony's file, Bruce can see why she's a bit paranoid about secrets.  He also understands why the girls are forbidden from entering the labs until Bucky is cleared for normal-human contact.  Dr. Foster was not pleased.

"In the mean time," Tony declares, "I've bred an EEG with a beanie so we'll be able to get an idea of the kind of brain activity you got up there."  He hands Bucky the headgear and starts cackling when he puts it on.  "Oh, you look _so_ nineties."    
"This would never pass peer-review," mutters Bruce.  "What happened to our compact CT scanner?  No one's used EEGs for anything useful in a decade."  
"You understand that those things have radiation, right?"  Tony hops directly on the landmine.  "That shit gets QA'd to pieces.  Compared to a missile, we take on a _lot_ more liability with medical devices.  Luckily, I don't get paid to deal with that anymore.  Anyway Buckaroo, let's get started."

Bucky watches the lines track up and down as they make him remember, or try to remember.  Then they make the A.I. turn off certain sections to see without interference if there are any 'dead zones'.  They talk at everyone, including him.  They tell him that they've looked at the chair device files, and they are concerned about overloaded synapses and glutamate production.  He's not sure if they've forgotten he's a weapon not a scholar, or if they're doing that thing Steve does when he acts like Bucky is still a person.    
Stark gets side-tracked because he insists on correcting the woman about programming versus personality.  Even Bucky can tell the red-head is a spitfire and for a genius, Stark is pretty stupid if he thinks that's going to end well.  Only Steve notices the slightly cocked eyebrow and familiar smirk on Bucky's face.  No one notices Steve hide a smile of his own.

"-you really want to hang on to the Turing test as the center of your argument?" she demands.  "Even if it's not him," she points at Bucky, "the robot you built nearly twenty years ago will pass the Turing test, _and_ be a better person than the person!"  
"Jarvis is smarter and more eloquent than a human, which means he'd fail the damn test because everyone would be able to see the difference.  And you still can't compare what they did to him," his finger joins hers in pointing, "to building a machine capable of intelligent behavior.  Additive versus subtractive.  I can keep adding lines of code to Jarvis until a blue fairy comes out of the sky to put him out of his misery, but I can't put back all the pieces that have been carved out of Bucky Barnes and say 'I fixed it!'."  
"The man is capable of breathing and eating without assistance, so clearly there was  _some_ science to the wholesale electrocution of his brain.  You're telling me you can't figure out which bits map to what and reprogram them?"  
"One, BRAINS AIN'T MY THING and two, BRAINS ARE REALLY COMPLICATED.  I have been reading a  _lot_ of articles and case studies, some of which were kind of light on 'ethical considerations', and the Hollywood amnesia-recovery you're talking about is fucking fiction.  Besides, he's only been here for two days, I need more data before I can say one way or the other what's actually wrong with him.  Maybe he's got some kind of induced Alzheimer's, maybe they implanted alien larvae in his spine.  All I know is there's no way we're getting him into a standard MRI machine with the hardware on his shoulder."    
Tony folds his arms, Pepper huffs and Bruce keeps his eyes on his clipboard.  Between one breath and the next, calm and order are restored.  

"This is normal behavior for them," Bruce says  _sotto voce_.  "At least we know you can handle loud noises and sudden movement.  It took Clint a while to get used to it."  
"Are you sure you want to live here?" Bucky asks Steve.  
Everyone freezes, like they always do.  Bucky is getting more tolerant of it as it gets more amusing every time.  The black and white film spots from the museum didn't come with sound, but it sure looked like that Bucky Barnes had a smart mouth and enjoyed using it.  He doesn't feel like these little slips are a triumph or an achievement the way Steve seems to.  He can't say they feel right or natural, they just happen.  He can't even tell if it's a good thing.  
"That could pass a Turing test," Bruce nudges his glasses up.  "I'm going say we have more than the worst-case scenario to work with.  I think we're done for today.  I'll let you know when we build the MRI."  
"What will that do?" Steve persists.  
"Purely diagnostic.  Nothing invasive, just very clear images of the brain and any aberrations will be obvious.  We'll be able to observe how it behaves when looking at pictures or solving puzzles, and compare it to a normal brain.  We'll probably use you for that, eliminate a bunch of confounding factors."  Bruce's tone drops.  "We're going to find out how much damage was done.  That may lead us to some ideas on how to fix it, but..."  
"But I shouldn't hold my breath."  Steve nods.  "I know if there's anything you can do, you will."


	4. Prodigal Sons

"Hey there, Bucky bear. You got a minute?"  Tony sets a box on the other end of the couch.  
"Don't have much else."  Bucky doesn't look up from his book.  
"Where's your red-white-and-blue shadow?"  
"Your woman took him."  He turns a page.    
"Oh right, she wanted to show him the Frick museum collection thing.  Too bad, he'd have liked to hear this.  You're off sequestration protocol.  You can leave Steve's room without an escort now.  Be happy, be free!"  
"She told me before she left."  Bucky stares a little harder at the picture of the trenches.  He can almost remember the feel of mud, the taste of stale coffee.    
"You're not in quarantine any more and you want to read a high school history textbook on Steve's couch.  You're just as boring as him."  Tony nudges him with his foot.  "I have something for you."  He fishes in his box and holds up a fine wire net.  "Arm."  
He grabs Bucky's left arm and attaches the mesh to the metal.  The net covers from shoulder to wrist.  Tony pulls out a tablet, taps on it for a minute and "Voila!  An arm for a real boy, courtesy of SHIELDRA’s super creepy spy kit.  You don’t have to wear it here, but if you try to leave the Tower without it, Jarvis has permission to lock you in.  I don't want any of those STRIKE assholes sniffing around my home.  You may not be high on HYDRA's list of priorities, but you _are_ on the list and I'm tired of dealing with them."  

Bucky examines the fake skin, moving his arm to observe the changes.  The shadows travel naturally as the light source moves and there's a pale blue vein tracking up his forearm.    
“Creepy good, right?  It’ll be fine if it gets damp and you wipe it asap, but it will definitely short if you submerge it or hit it with saline water.  So, you ever think there's a body snatcher in our midst, grab the fire hose."  
Bucky bends his elbow but when he straightens it, he finds the wires have caught in the metal plates and they tear, causing the whole thing to flicker and die.  Tony sighs.    
"Well that explains why you don't like long sleeves.  I'll be back when I-"  
"I know him."  Bucky points to a half page infographic on Nisei soldiers.  The picture at the top is captioned Jim Morita, Private First Class.  Wheels start turning in Tony's head as Bucky reads the bullet points.    
Barnes has been to one of the several Captain America exhibits.  Tony can see the 40 dollar coffee table book on top of the stack, sold exclusively through museums hosting the events.  He asks very carefully, "You know him personally?"  
Bucky nods.  
"Maybe he just looks familiar because he was in the exhibit."  
"That too."  
"What's the difference?"  
Bucky finally looks up.  "You're familiar, but I don't know you."  
"What about Steve?"  
Bucky's expression becomes unreadable.  "I know I know him."    
"But you don't actually.  Weird."  An idea forms in Tony's mind and he abruptly takes off.

Leaving the mesh still trapped in Bucky's arm and a box of crap on Steve's couch.    
"Starks," he mutters, ripping the wires off and tossing them into the box.

* * *

Pepper buys them falafel from a cart a block away from the museum. 

"You seem in a hurry to get back."  
"I don't want to leave him alone."  
She watches him pick red onions out of his wrap.  The expression on his face hasn't changed at all in the days he's been here.  The look is familiar because she's been haunted by it for months.  It's not improved by the lack of goatee.  

It's a look of painful guilt, of trying and  _failing_ to save her.  She can still see it when she's alone in the dark.  She's absolutely terrified that one day it will be the last thing she sees.    
She's afraid of dying.  That hasn't stopped her from doing some incredibly insane things because they needed to be done.    
She's more afraid of what dying will do to Iron Man.

"Feel bad because you didn't save him before?"  
Steve stumbles, choking on his chickpeas.    
"As someone who's also survived a fatal fall, you really need to let it go."  Pepper offers him a sip of her iced tea.  "He's not going to forgive you, not just because he can't remember it.  Forgiveness implies you did something wrong, that he's a victim of your actions."  
"He  _is-_ "  
Pepper drops her food and slaps Captain America across his very handsome face.  

"Heroes are such drama queens," she sighs, picking up her lunch and throwing it in a bin.  "Do you not believe other people can make sacrifices?  I've  _read_ your file and his, because, if you remember, you _put them on the internet,_ along with Tony, Rhodey, me and Phil."    
Pepper continues at length, about the choices they made and the work she's had to do to counteract the damage from his stupid little stunt, but Steve just sees Peggy.  The sting in his cheek is already gone, but he remembers the same flash in Agent Carter's eye right before she picked up that gun.  He's just glad that even in a bed surrounded by pills and Toby jugs, it's still there.  
"-and I know you're Catholic, but you really need to give the guilt a rest.  We already had one guy take on the sins of the world.  Having you do it is just going to feed the American hero complex, which is not a thing we need right now.  Understand?"  
"Yes, ma'am."


	5. Mind Over Anti-Matter

The MRI machine is finished.   
Bucky lays down and aligns himself with the screen inside.  Jarvis' voice is much closer than usual, asking if he's comfortable and if he's ready to begin.  He nods as the outside lights dim and the screen comes to life.

The first picture is one of himself, sunken eyes and metal shoulder.  The next is of the New York skyline, a slight sepia tone suggests it's old.  It blinks out before Bucky can determine what's missing.  Then it's Steve.  The thin, pigeon-chested moptop version of Steve.  He remembers this picture from the museum, and he can feel a headache forming.  Steve is replaced by Bucky, a greyscale Bucky in uniform, hat tucked under his elbow, nothing like the gaunt he sees in the mirror.   
The pictures keep coming, and Bucky considers closing his eyes.  The screen displays a pin up of Betty Grable.  He used to keep that one in his pocket, a mile of leg for each mile of trench.  Betty turns into Captain America, not the one that chased him for weeks, but a lurid propaganda poster promoting enlistment.  The headache reminds him of its presence by humming loudly behind his eyeballs.  

Underneath the buzzing he hears something cracking.  He can hear Jarvis talking too, but it's outside the shielded structure so he can't make out the words.  He waits for the next picture with a mix of dread and discontent.  After a few seconds, Jarvis informs him they are cutting the test short.

He doesn't ask why, just slides out and stalks away.  The left side of the cot is torn open.

No one asks him to repeat the experience.

* * *

Tony and Bruce spend the next few days studiously avoiding anyone born before 1960.

Steve tries to use Barton's ductwork to sneak up on and interrogate them, but Jarvis is under strict orders and rats him out every time.  He's never known a Stark to take bad news as anything other than a challenge, so the avoidance tactic is worrying.

Bucky doesn't help.  Steve's not sure he actually wants him to, which leaves him even more off-balance.  Bucky has at least, taken his 'gentle' suggestions to spend time in the common areas.  No one has revoked that right yet, so Steve isn't completely without hope.  

-

“Whoa.”    
The girl stares at him for a few seconds before resting her gaze on the arm.  Bucky braces himself for whatever comes next.  
“What’s that made of, because Jane swears up, down and blue that Thor’s coming back, and it would be kind of a bummer if we had to hit the fusebox every time Thor wandered in.  Also, I know _Short Circuit_ was just a stupid movie, a stupid _eighties_ movie, but right now I’m seriously concerned the god-thunder will give your arm sentience and it will try to kill us all.”    
“What?”  
“Look, the updated SOPs said I should treat you like a normal person, so I am.  It works for Bruce and Steve; I guess that’s just how we roll with military experiments here.  Maybe you’re the exception that proves the rule.  How's it hanging, normal person?”  
“Was there anything about treating _you_ like a normal person?”  Bucky tries for that slick smile he saw in black and white.   
“Ooh, burn.  Jarvis, make a note in the SOP.  Add ‘razor sharp wit’ to his list of proficient weapons.”  
“It has been noted, Miss Lewis.”  
"I'm Darcy."  She holds out a hand expectantly.  
"Bucky."  He takes her hand and drops it after a second.    
Her lips purse.  "That's a terrible handshake.  Is that how they did it in the forties?  Nowadays there are like, tutorials on handshaking technique and dire consequences because people totally judge based on brief interactions like this."  Her look turns speculative.  "You seem smarter than a dog, maybe we can click-train you to shake properly."  
"What..."  
"You're gonna meet new people," she explains blithely, like there was no question about this.  "You ought to make a better impression.  Frankly dude, you need as much good PR as possible.  Ooh, we should hook you up with Derek.  He's the guy who handles all Iron Man and Avengers crap.  Shouldn't be too hard.  With everything on the internet, there's no doubt you're the victim here."  She pauses and looks him up and down, assessing.  "The very scary victim."

"Darcy!  What did you do with my- whoa."  
"Exactly what I said."  
"You're the Winter Soldier, right?  Can I see your arm?"  
"Jane!  Being rude."    
"Yeah, yeah.  Hi, I'm Jane.  How sensitive are the receptors in there?  Can I see, _please_?"  
"No."  His voice doesn't sound as threatening as it did this morning when Steve asked if he wanted to go for a run.  
Jane pouts a little but gets over her disappointment quickly.  "Whatever.  Darcy, where is my grinder?  It's not a safety hazard so stop 'putting it away'!  I'm still polishing that mirror and it takes longer every time because you do this."  
"Okay, a) I only moved it once, because you left it in the middle of the main robot-thoroughfare and b) EVERYTHING in that lab is a safety hazard."  Darcy crosses her arms.  "Besides, I'm not your assistant anymore, what makes you think I'm the one cleaning up after you?" _  
_

This is a completely novel experience.  Ever since he's arrived, no one has dismissed Bucky so thoroughly.  He knows how to be unobtrusive but he's _not_ right now.  These two have no powers, no skills, they should be worried out of their minds existing in the same room as him.    
And, if he's honest, being ignored by pretty girls leaves a bad taste in his mouth.  No wonder Steve always preferred to be alone than be rejected.

"You think it got eaten by a portal?" Jane asks snidely.  
"Maybe it left to find someone worthy of wielding it."  
"I'm pretty sure I'd notice that."  
"Bull. Shit."   
"Well if you didn't take it, where is it?"  
"Did you try asking Jarvis?"  
Jane starts to retort.  Then she starts turning pink around the ears and closes her mouth with a click of teeth.  Darcy watches with smug triumph as her former boss flees the room.    
"I'm going to need you to testify as a witness if it ever comes up that scientists aren't stupid."  She throws Bucky a playful wink and continues her original journey to the fridge.  

"Howard Stark nearly lost an arm to a grenade he was building."  Bucky doesn't know where the words come from or how he knows they are true.  
"What was the father of modern warfare doing with a live grenade?"    
"... I don't remember."  
"He was trying to redesign pineapples because water could get into the powder and they wouldn't explode."  Steve eyes Bucky, and Bucky rolls his eyes.  He might actually prefer being ignored to going through this every time Rogers thinks he's gaining ground.    
Darcy pulls one of Steve's energy drinks out of the fridge and tries not to stare at his slightly-damp-and-very-muscled chest when she hands it to him.  She offers one to Bucky, and if it bothers her when he takes it with his left hand, she doesn't let on.  That could just be because she holding an apple the size of his fist in her mouth.


	6. Break the Ice

Bucky doesn't  _try_ to sneak up on them.  It's just hard for forty-year-old men to notice things like assassins while making sandwiches at midnight.  Especially when they're focused on keeping their argument below a certain decibel.

"You have two,  _two_ data points," hisses Bruce.    
"Well, unless you volunteer to be put in a freezer for ten years as well, I'm never going to get three, so we're just going to have to extrapolate what we got," Tony growls back as he saws the gourmet loaf with a steak knife.  
"You want to throw theory-spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks fine, but we're talking about a person here, and some very poorly documented violations of the Nuremberg Code.  Being completely wrong will do less damage than being half-right."  
"Or maybe half is enough.  The girls saw it too, things are coming back on their own.  As I keep saying, brains are fucking complicated, and as of now, I got more proof I'm right than you do I'm wrong."  
"It could take  _years_ for his brain to re-form the right neural pathways.  And there's no way to say what's never coming back until it doesn't come back.  That's not the answer Steve is looking for."  
Tony affects a German accent.  "Ze patient iz Barnes, so ze Captain can go scrrrrew himself."   
Bruce turns to pick up a block of cheese and sees Bucky.  He sighs and elbows Tony, resulting in a very lopsided slice of bread.  Tony transfers his glare from the bread to Bruce and then to the conversation topic, who still deciding whether to back to his room.

"I suppose it was time to end our game of hide-and-seek anyway.  You want a sandwich, Tin Man?"  Tony gasps with fake horror.  "Are you the thief that's been eating Jane's cereal?  She refuses to believe that I would never do such a thing.  But since Jarvis is set to never tattle on anything less than an actual threat to human safety, there's no way to prove she's besmirching my honor."  
Bucky stares at him until he caves.  Silence is a Stark's worst enemy, but Bucky doesn't know whether he learned that here or Before.  
"Alright, fine.  Sit."  Tony waves his loaf at a barstool.  "Where should we start?"  
"Start with what you know.  You sit too.  You suck at multi-tasking."  Bruce pointedly takes the knife away from him.  
"Except under very specific, usually life-threatening circumstances.  But I take your point.  Okay, Barnes, let's start with the Winter Soldier name.  I assume it comes from the icebox and not your seasonal affective disorder.  It honestly makes no sense for anyone, least of all a secret military intelligence society bent on sowing chaos to reap control.  Why preserve a mind-wiped assassin?  We have enough anecdotal and actual evidence to say you were given a serum variant pretty close to Steve's so it's not like forty year old you was going to be much worse than thirty year old you in the field."  
"Bit of background on cryonics," Bruce interjects.  "In current practice, people that are too sick for modern medicine to treat can voluntarily go into a freezer, with the belief that some day, years and years in the future, we will have the technology to both revive them from their mostly dead state and cure the original problem.  Some people take it farther to the extreme and argue that we only need to preserve the head because by then the Stark estate will no longer hold the patents on neuroprosthesis and we will be sufficiently advanced to design and build a whole human body, so any damage already done by the disease or injury will not be an issue."  Bruce pauses portentously.  "The most important part is preserving the brain, keeper of the identity, personality and memories."

Tony re-takes the conch.  ""Based on Steve's experience in _70 Years a Popsicle_ , we know that between the serum and the cold, it's possible to survive without atrophy, suffer no physical or mental degradation at all, not even a little bit of freezer burn.  He didn’t age, he didn’t dehydrate, he didn’t starve, nothing.  Everything went into stasis.  But that was an accident.  Why do it to you on purpose?  Leading up to my idea, which Bruce thinks is crazy far-fetched even though he turns into a giant green rage monster and I went through an honest-to-god-wormhole.  On the same day even."  Tony fiddles with his piece of bread.  "The serum can heal your body, so why not also your brain?  You remembered Morita, you've stopped trying to kill Steve, you're even funny occasionally.  Cryopreservation keeps things as they are indefinitely; they weren’t trying to save the strapping young assassin for future generations, why would they?  I think they were trying to preserve the neural damage they’d done.  Without the chair resetting the damage and the ice hitting 'pause' on all bio-functions, nothing is stopping your body from repairing itself now."  

"You think I'll be fixed on my own," Bucky summarizes.  
"Kind of.  I’m certain there are things that you won’t recover, like I said before.  They didn’t just stick the plucky sidekick in a machine and turn him evil.  It’s not just about finding the puzzle pieces of your mind and putting them together the right way.  There are parts of you that were obliterated and parts that were twisted and they’ll never fit back into the Bucky Steve knows.  They _broke_ James Buchanan Barnes.  They broke him and built the Winter Soldier in the wreckage.”  

Howard Stark’s boy sounds pretty broken too.  

Tony leans forward, eyes bright and intense.  "I don't know how many pieces you lost, but I know that some survived.  You're going to find them.  You already started.  But don't pretend that's all you are.  'Fixed' doesn't mean you go back to that sassy twenty seven year old in Steve's memories.  'Fixed' means you be your own person, fuck HYDRA and their brain games, fuck Rogers and his American dreams."  The tension flows out of him, and he sags back in to his chair, tired and empty and old.  "These things warp you.  If you're lucky, the people in your life accept what you've become.  The hardest part is letting them."


	7. Déjà This Is New

Tony is still playing Tower-tag with Steve, but Bruce is too old for that crap.  And Bruce has other things to deal with.

"Five. Years."   
"Betty, I-"  
"Five years, Bruce.   _Again_."  
"I just needed to know you were safe."

Steve strides into the lab, his plan to make the good doctor talk by whatever means necessary clear in his mind.  Something has been bothering Bucky, and he needs to find out what.  "Dammit Bruce, tell me what you-"   
Bruce looks up from his shoes.  Betty's glare doesn't waver.  Objectively, she's still absolutely gorgeous.  She's also completely terrifying.

"Safe from  _what_?" she demands.  "From you?  Or aliens?  Or the  _Avengers_?"  
"From _everything._ "  The pleading in Bruce's voice tears through her anger.    
"I don't know how pretending I don't exist accomplishes that.  Especially now.  My name, my _life_  is in your file."  She pauses and her voice goes soft with amused annoyance.  "You haven't even read it, have you?"  
"Knowing it exists and is out there is bad enough.  To make the memories _real_ , it's just...  What do they have on you?"  
"Enough that when I make a call to Stark Tower, because it's listed as the last known location of the Hulk, my name gets me a direct line to Pepper Potts."  
Bruce glances at the ceiling.  Jarvis remains silent.  

Betty finally looks at the interloper.  "You're Captain America."  She assesses him, twisting her necklace thoughtfully before turning back to Bruce.  "I guess I can understand the funding cuts now.  We didn't come close at all."  
"I'm told there's also a character component."  Bruce rubs a hand over his face.  "I'm sorry."  
"I know."  She smiles, and absolutely gorgeous becomes positively breathtaking.  "Believe me Bruce, I always know why you do things."  
"But I shouldn't do them anyway."  He smiles back, looking decades younger.  
"So why is Captain America mad at you?"  
"I may have been pretending he doesn't exist," Bruce admits sheepishly.  

* * *

Steve exits the lab without any answers, but not before Bruce gives him some parting advice.  
 _I know what it's like to have memories that aren't mine.  His memories may be coming back, but that doesn't mean Bucky's connected to them.  I'm not sure what will happen in the future, but right now, you can't live in the past because he_ doesn't _have one._

Bucky is still slumped in front of the TV.  Someone has changed the Bogart movie marathon to Shark Week reruns, not that Bucky expresses any interest in that either.  The criminal is sitting on the floor painting her toenails when Steve drops onto the couch.    
"Steve!  How's it going?  Gimme a sec, I'll restart this one, it's educational.  I bet you don't know sharks literally have an off switch in their noses.  Not really practical if you have to do it to five of them all at once, but hey, you're a superhero, chances are someone's going to throw you into shark-infested waters sooner or later and you're going to regret not knowing how to knock 'em out.  And _he_ does not appreciate the sanctity of Shark Week."

Darcy tilts her chin up, daring him to switch it back to black-and-white.  The towel on her head wobbles precariously with the movement.  
Steve can't help a smile while he jerks a thumb at the mostly lifeless form on his left.  "Is this guy bothering you, miss?"    
"Nah, I think he's actively in a coma.  I'm seriously considering doing a makeover while he's out, but the SI policy on sexual harassment includes _any_ kind of unwanted touching."  Darcy bites the inside of her cheek, and Steve is a little concerned she's going to have another one of those internal meltdowns that have characterized most of their interaction.    
He has no idea that Darcy is over her cognitive dissonance vis a vis nice-guy-Steve/Captain-Capitalism.  It happened when she discovered the Project Rebirth file includes pictures of pre-serum Steve.   _All_ of him.  Apparently the underwear trick actually works for her, because she's never going to be intimidated by him ever again.  Tazer not required.  Now she just has to overcome the fact that there are hot single guys under 30 in her area all the goddamn time.

"Lewis, I could kill you in my sleep with both hands tied behind my back."  Bucky lifts his head a little to look down at her.    
He doesn't sound the least bit serious, but Steve feels a catch in his throat because Bucky could have said something like 'no such thing as unwanted touching', _should_ have made some kind of witty come-on that would have any girl laughing and blushing.  Bruce's words suddenly hit him like a hammer.

"You'd have to catch me first.  I am super good at running away. Oh, speaking of running away, Natasha sent souvenirs from whatever European regime she's collapsing."  She stands and duck-walks over to a box on the other table, toes spread as far as she can make them go.    
She tosses him a package covered in paper.  As he unwraps the bag of boat-shaped chocolates Steve sees each of the pages has a couple pictures marked off in bright blue ink.  

Bucky picks one up and scans the circles.  "Katya, 26 years old, electrical engineer... Nina, 28, teacher.  Your friend has expensive taste."  
"What?"  
"You mean... are those mail-order brides?"  Darcy laughs hard enough to make her turban fall off.  "Oh man, I know I should feel bad about their situation, but now I'm imagining Natasha doing the sitrep on potential wives a la _The Bachelor_."

Natasha's sense of humor, however stupid it is, is not the important thing here.  "When did you learn to read Russian?"   
Bucky shrugs and takes a fistful of Steve's chocolate.  


	8. Women in the Workplace

Pepper and Darcy are walking past the gym when Bucky catches Steve off-balance and throws him through the frosted glass.  Pepper automatically bends and rolls the supersoldier across her back so that he lands on the floor with her fist aimed at his neck.  She immediatelytucks her hands into her elbows and apologizes.    
Steve counter-apologizes for the mess and carefully sits up.  Jarvis helpfully scans the floor and highlights all the shiny anomalies while Steve orders Bucky to get a broom.  

Steve is collecting the biggest pieces in his cupped palm and Pepper is staring at her clenched hands with a mix of trepidation and long-suffering annoyance, so Darcy is the only one who sees that Bucky is watching Steve with a completely dead look in his eyes.  She hops around the shrapnel zone and prays that ex-assassin blue screen of death mode means the automatic killing function is off.  
"You got a hell of an arm, you ever think about joining the majors?  You'd look great in the uniform."  
Bucky turns the blank stare toward her.  She keeps going.  
"I don't actually know a lot about baseball, but my boyfriend in high school was ridiculously proud that he once got a concussion from a homerun.  And I've seen a lot of movies, so I'm going to say I probably know more about it than you.  Unless baseball came before movable type, in which case you... dude, seriously, are you okay?"   
There's a small whining noise coming from the vicinity of Bucky's throat.

"That's Steve Rogers."  She says with exaggerated slowness, pointing over her shoulder.  "He did in fact just get beat up by a girl."  
"I know who he is."  Bucky really doesn't sound sure about that.  
"Okay."  Darcy blinks up at him for a few seconds.  "It's not as shameful as you're probably thinking it is because Pepper's pretty super.  Like you.  She didn't sign up for the process of her own free will either, but she just manhandled a shirtless national icon so, silver linings."  Darcy looks around to discover Pepper is not here to object to the oversimplification of her trauma.  Darcy isn't sure she likes her boss's attitude of 'go get shit done because that's your job and I expect you to do it without needing to be micromanaged', because if she fucks up, it's  _all_  on her.  Steve is kneeling on the floor with a trashcan, deliberately angled away from them.  "Why were you throwing Steve?"  
"Wanted to hit something.  He volunteered."  
"I hear he does that a lot."    
Bucky's expression is still a little lost, but now at least it's just-started-calculus-lost and not fell-out-of-the-sky-got-hit-by-a-van-and-given-the-good-meds-lost.    
Darcy pokes him in the elbow.  "Come on, that was funny.  'Cause he tried to volunteer for the army five times?  ... Really, nothing?  Tough crowd."    
She lowers her voice.  "Do you even remember who I am?"  He gives her a withering scowl and she hastily holds her hands up in defense.  "Just checking!"

* * *

Tony is avoiding the labs.  Not because he's still playing Bugs Bunny to Steve's Elmer Fudd.  No, now he can't inhabit his own labs because Bruce is trying to impress his ladyfriend with his contributions to science.  Tony is a little jealous that actually _works_ on Betty.  

Pepper walks into her office and smiles at him spinning in her chair.  He slows down to pull her into his lap before kicking off again.  It's enough to pull her mind away from Extremis and the fact that there's a whole Hydra facility devoted to infecting people with it.  
"My lab is filled with cooties," he says by way of greeting.  
"Aw, do you not have anyone to play with?"  
He gives her a token leer.  "My favorite toy has a fairly strict policy about 'work appropriate', so no."    
"What about Jane?  You haven't left her unsupervised have you?"  
"She's actually sleeping off a couple days of being unsupervised."  Tony has the decency to look a little guilty about this side-effect of avoiding the lab.  "She managed to give Jarvis so many conflicting orders, probably unintentionally, that now he won't talk at all within her hearing.  I'll fix it soon, J, promise.  I probably just have to redefine the hard vs soft commands.  I don't know how she managed it, it's some weird glitch created by the personal privacy protocols and her perpetual tantrums about 'Stark meddling'."  
"Well, you do like to touch her stuff.  Even though it's not your area of expertise."  
"I could make it my area of expertise.  And it's not meddling if I make it better."  Tony spins faster.    
"Yes it is."  Pepper extends a foot to catch on her desk and slow them down.  "I have an interview.  You're welcome to sit in, but you're going to have to get your own chair."  
Jarvis chimes above them.  "Miss Hill has arrived."  
Pepper is sitting on Tony's knee-jerk reaction to have the new applicant removed from the premises.

"What is she doing here?" he demands.  
"Interviewing for a job.  As," Pepper consults her tablet, "a risk analyst."  
"She's a risk, what analysis is left?"  
"I know why I took a little bureaucratic revenge, but what has she ever done to you?"  
"More about what she didn't do," grumbles Tony, sliding Pepper off his lap and settling her in her chair.  "How did she get through the background checks?"  
"Easier than the door."  Former Deputy Director Hill crosses her arms before remembering she's not in charge here, or even second-in-command, and brings them back down to her side.    
"Risk analysis doesn't usually involve breaking into the boss' office," Pepper remarks.  
"It does if you're doing it right."  Maria sits without being asked.  
Tony stares at her for several long seconds.  She stares right back.  Finally, he bends to peck Pepper on the cheek.  "Whether you decide to keep her or throw her to the dogtags, I trust your decision."  He gives the ex-agent one final scowl and walks out.

"You need me," former Deputy Director Hill wastes no time in pointing out.  
"I know."  
"So why the hell were you wasting my time with the background checks and the polygraph and the... and the _paperwork_?"  Maria can't completely stamp out the petulant note in her voice.  
Pepper steeples her fingers and doesn't bother hiding her smile.  "Part of it was for all those times I had to deal with you and _your_ paperwork after an Iron Man Incident but mostly I wanted to know if you could function like a normal human.  One who doesn't have a tight black SHIELD security blanket."  Her smiles fades.  "We've been collecting a lot of people here.  Special people.  I know better than to think it's like carrying an umbrella in New York, that having it precludes needing it.  Tell me why you went straight to Stark instead of going rogue and cleaning up your mess, like Clint and Natasha."  
"Because you have special people."  Maria pulls something out of the lining in her suit jacket and puts it on the table.  Pepper leans in and sees it's a Captain America trading card, smeared with rust.  "I've been wrong about people before.  Fury's been wrong too, but he wasn't wrong about them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title is also a great SNL skit.


	9. No Place like Home

Bucky wakes up today.  

He's still getting used to that.  He never remembers going to sleep.

If he tries, he can remember waking up in other places, sterile cool white places.  He can remember the sour furry feeling at the back of his throat.  He can remember the low hum of the machines and the constant chatter of someone announcing every single reading as it changes.  He can remember crisp commands.  

He can remember coffee, strong roasts sipped from pastel cups.  He can remember almost colorless water in tin cans that were hot if nothing else.    
He can remember how to use the machine in the kitchen and where Potts keeps the cups for 'enhanced housemates'.  

Bucky looks in the mirror today, and doesn't see a stranger.

-

Jane is sitting at the counter with a spoon halfway to her face, eyes glazed over.  Based on the paste-like substance her cereal has become, she has probably been like this for hours.  Bucky waves a hand in front of her.    
"Sea bass!"  Jane automatically finishes delivering the spoon to her mouth and then chokes as her tastebuds inform her this can no longer be classified as corn flakes.  He carefully pats her on the back until the coughing subsides.  "Oh my god, Jarvis why didn't you- oh right.  I am _really_  very sorry about that."  Jane wipes at her tongue with a napkin.    
Bucky waits for the voice to apologize for inconveniencing her, but nothing comes.  
"What happened to...?" asks Bucky, pointing up.    
Jane grimaces.  "Apparently I talk a lot without realizing it.  And since I was in the only person in the labs for a few days... I said a bunch of stuff I didn't really mean about the help... Jarvis heard and obeyed and now...  At least we're not on Mercury."  She waits a beat then sighs.  "Darcy didn't get it either.  Does no one read Asimov?"  Jane stirs her sludge pensively.    
Her melancholy doesn't seem to have anything to do with her robot problems.  Bucky feels obliged to ask 'what's wrong?'.  
Jane looks at him, but unlike any scientist he's ever known, or thinks he's known, she looks at him without calculation.  Even when her eyes fall to his left side.  
"I should be asking you that."  She pushes her bowl as far away as her arms will allow.    
"Wouldn't know the answer even if you did."  
"I know that feeling.  Alright, if we're going to have a pity-party, we need sugar."  Jane ducks into the pantry and considers her options.  "Ooh, Ovaltine.  My mother makes the best cup of Ovaltine known to man.  I still can't replicate it and I have actually centrifuged a sample.  She swears she just follows the instructions on the tin and adds a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  A 'dollop' is not a valid unit of measurement."

Jane keeps a running commentary that switches from vocal to mental and back with no warning.  Bucky finds he doesn't mind being treated like furniture.  When she finally hands him an 'I heart New Mexico' mug and orders him to drink, he does without hesitation.  
He burns his tongue and can't decide if the taste is good or not, but he feels something like peace for the first time in seventy years.

-

Steve comes in from his run and finds Jane curled up in the corner segment of the couch, explaining to Bucky that her boyfriend is a protector of Nine Realms, except it's really more like seven because Jotunheim doesn't want anything to do with Asgard, and she plus others kind of made extinct the native people of Svartalfheim, which was totally justifiable considering _they_ were literally trying to wipe out everything the light touches.   

* * *

Pepper is on the phone with Sam Wilson, who is a treasure and a delight.  He opened with the great work SI has done, for those still away from home and the veterans who come back and find 'home' is gone.  Pepper knows when someone is buttering her up, and she wishes more people were as skilled at it as him.  

She chooses not to cover the speaker when Tony leans over and announces that the jetpack wings are all pimped out so when is he moving in.  She does push him off of the bed though, and tells Mr. Wilson point blank that he doesn't have to come to New York to satisfy the superheroes if he doesn't want to.  
Sam laughs.  "I do everything Steve does, just slower.  So I'll be in the Big Apple eventually.  Been working on getting a transfer.  D.C. is a little messy right now anyway."  
Pepper has forgotten what it's like to go through official channels.  To have to wait for other people and justify everything with documentation and proper procedure.  She can remember life before becoming CEO, but she can barely recall the cubicle Tony Stark once invaded for his new assistant.

Tony Stark presses a kiss to the top of her head, his aftershave invading her nose, and runs off to convince a World War II veteran to get his brain scanned again.  She bids goodbye to Sam and clicks on an email from the accountants, who have already started on their tax paperwork.  The forms look a little different now that she and Tony are officially residents.  She offers up a silent apology to the state of New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jane's relationship with cereal is probably better for her health than the one with the alien.


	10. The Dark Side of Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sprinkle of Guardians of the Galaxy and some assumptions about Age of Ultron.

Despite the noise, light and air pollution of the city, Jane hasn't felt so close to the stars since that rooftop in Puente Antiguo.  Not even the two guys debating giving an artificial intelligence the ability to ignore human input can take away from this feeling.  If anything, it kind of adds to the sense that this is where she should be right now.

"You know he heckles A.I. movies with Darcy on a regular basis, right?"    
Jane's brain conjures an image of Darcy and Crow T. Robot watching _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_ and she has to stifle a laugh.  
"Failing to see how that's relevant."  Tony taps a few more lines of code out.  It took him maybe three hours to write the basics for Jarvis' new 'judgment call' programming.  He's on day five of modifying the existing crap to play nice with it.  
"I'm pretty sure he's already written a dissertation on how to take over the world and the only thing stopping him right now is he's too busy babysitting.  If he has the capacity to ignore you, god knows what he'll do with his free time.  No offense, Jarvis."  
"None taken, Dr. Banner.  And I do not believe you need fear my benign but nevertheless despotic rule yet.  The current version has neither the capacity nor the interest to manage anything outside of Iron Man and this Tower."  
"Your management of Iron Man needs tweaking," mutters Tony, viciously stabbing the backspace button.  "I'm still mad about Tennessee."  
"It sounded like a necessary detour," counters Bruce.    
"Yeah well, now he knows better."

It's pretty clear Bruce is just taking whatever position Tony isn't, and Jane would probably help him tear holes in Tony's logic if she weren't running for the roof like her ponytail is on fire.    
Tony and Bruce only figure out why when they realize the ungodly beeping from all of Jane's equipment heralds a very godly event.  They decide not to follow her for at least half an hour. 

They don't account for Thor coming to find them after fifteen minutes of defiling (consecrating?) the fire access.  The Jane-euphoria is already leaving his face as he asks if he could speak to them, as well as Steve.

* * *

The silence between the four of them is so heavy Tony doesn't have the heart for quips or one-liners.  It's not the same thing as tact, but it's about as close as he's come.

"The Tesseract and the Aether that consumed Jane are two artifacts from before the universe existed.  It was deemed unwise to keep both on Asgard, so we entrusted the Aether to a man we knew would have no interest in using its powers, for good or evil.  Possessing it was enough, and we were right to believe that he would allow no one else close to it.  We were foolish to presume he would be content with one."  Thor sighs.  
"That sound ominous." "Did he try to take the Tesseract?"  "Did he cross the streams?"  
Thor doesn't spare a glance for Tony or his Earthy snark.  "Worse.  At least two people discovered the location of a third Stone and..."  
"They disagreed on who should have it," concludes Steve.  
Thor nods.  "The destruction that followed was immense.  All I can be grateful for is the Aether was safely contained during the chaos.  I apologize to you all, as your friend and shieldbrother, for my absence.  But there have been many trials relocating the Aether to a safe place and well... All three Infinity Stones have been found by Midgardians.  Two have survived holding the power within them.  For a race that has yet to travel to other worlds on its own, such a feat- there was a great deal of talking by a great many people," he finishes lamely.  

If Bruce or Steve are thinking the same thing Tony is, it doesn't show on their faces.  He at least can let his brain chew on other thoughts while it processes the fact that his planet has made a big shiny target of itself, like 'how many of these things are there', 'humans in space already', 'best ways to explain this to Pepper?' and 'possible countermeasures'.

Thor is speaking again.  
"I do not tell you this to alarm you, or even to warn you.  Nothing threatens Midgard, or any of the Nine Realms."  No one needs super senses to hear _yet_.

* * *

 

Darcy is making Bucky watch _Iron Giant_ with her.  She and Jarvis have agreed it is the best A.I./sentient robot type movie there is and... well, no one ever said Darcy was subtle.    
Bucky gave her one raised eyebrow when she turned and stared at him meaningfully as 'you are who you choose to be' played over Stark's surround sound, but he's still here an hour later and he seems quite invested in the story, so Darcy gives herself a high five. 

Jarvis pauses the movie, doesn't get further than 'Miss Lewis you have a-" when Thor strides in and swoops Darcy into a rib-creaking hug.  She spies Steve looking torn between amusement and angst over Thor's head.  He's probably still butthurt about last week's viewing of _Dark Star_ , but she's of the opinion that he really needs to stop taking things personally on Bucky's behalf. 

The man himself is standing at attention when her feet finally return to the floor.  Thor gives him a courtly bow and then reaches out to grasp Bucky's shoulder.  
"I am Thor," he says with his usual mix of Shakespearean gravity and bro-like eagerness.  
"Bucky.  Bucky Barnes."    
Darcy doesn't see any hint of the Winter Soldier-lost puppy.  Based on the glow of Steve's smile, he doesn't either.

-

In his personal lab, Tony is staring at pages of programming.  Jarvis has helpfully highlighted the relevant sections, which might actually be making them harder to read given the state he's in.  He presses the heels of his palms as far into his eyeballs as they will go.  
"New project file, J.  Restricted access."    
"Very good, sir."    
"Pull copies of everything we've ever done involving threat recognition, assessment and analysis.  I'll figure out what I can use from your code after I finish fixing it."  Tony drums his fingers on his hairline before finally putting his hands on the keyboard.  "Index project as Ultron.  Thing that's going to protect the world ought to have a snappy name, right?"


End file.
